This photo provided by Paramount Pictures shows, Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, as the Terminator and J.K. Simmons as Detective O'Brien, in "Terminator Genisys," from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. ... more

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a selfie as he poses for photographers at a preview of his new film, 'Terminator: Genisys', in Paris, France, Friday, June 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a selfie as he poses for photographers at a preview of his new film, 'Terminator: Genisys', in Paris, France, Friday, June 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Photo: Jacques Brinon, STF / Associated Press

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Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and Jason Clarke, right, take a picture as they arrive for the Europe premiere of the movie 'Terminator: Genisys' in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, June 21, 2015. At right is actress Emilia Clarke. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) less

Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and Jason Clarke, right, take a picture as they arrive for the Europe premiere of the movie 'Terminator: Genisys' in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, June 21, 2015. At right is ... more

Photo: Michael Sohn, STF / Associated Press

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Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives at the LA Premiere of "Terminator Genisys" at Dolby Theatre on Sunday, June 28, 2015 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives at the LA Premiere of "Terminator Genisys" at Dolby Theatre on Sunday, June 28, 2015 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Photo: Jordan Strauss, INVL / Associated Press

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‘Terminator: Genisys’ a letdown, but it’s good to have Arnold back

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It would be easy to judge “Terminator: Genisys” against most modern action films and say, fine, it’s good enough. But anyone who has ever seen “Terminator 2,” especially anyone old enough to remember the excitement that movie produced, has to look upon “Terminator: Genisys” as a mild letdown.

Still, it’s better than “Terminator 3” (2003) and it’s good to see Arnold Schwarzenegger reprise one of his signature roles.

This sequel repeats some of the patterns of the earlier films, with characters going back in time, either to prevent things from happening or to make sure they do. But “Terminator: Genisys” is very much of the moment in its concern that technology is getting out of hand, that the machines are taking over. The “Genisys” of the title is a new operating system that is going to link up the entire world — and then wipe out civilization.

How exactly the operating system will do this, or how people’s signing up for the system makes it easier for them to get blown up, is not made clear. Just accept that, as one character puts it, “People are inviting their own destruction through the front door, and they don’t even know it.”

“Terminator: Genisys” is as convoluted as “The Godfather Part III,” only without Al Pacino saying that every time he thinks he’s out they pull him back in. Actually, if Schwarzenegger said that line here, it would have fit just fine. Instead, we get scenes like the one in which two people explain the same concept to someone four times (really for our benefit) and the audience still doesn’t have a clue.

The year is — well, the year is a lot of different things here. Following a recap of history, in which the TransAmerica Pyramid and the Golden Gate Bridge are obliterated before the opening credits, the movie formally begins in 2029, with John Connor (Jason Clarke) leading the human forces to free the earth from robot rule. The earth, or rather California, is a dark, desolate place, and the robots have no esthetic taste. Everything is ugly.

Connor sends his right-hand man, Kyle (Jai Courtney) back to 1983 to protect his, Connor’s, mother, who is only 20 and has not yet given birth to John. Kyle finds that Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is already feisty, having spent most of her young life warding off terminator attacks with the help of her own terminator (Schwarzenegger), whom she calls Pops. Pops is looking a little older, but that’s because the terminators are made with real human skin, which ages. Still, as Pops says, “I’m old, but I’m not obsolete.”

Terminator: Genisys

★★½

Quick take: Arnold’s time isn’t up just yet

Realizing they must stop Genisys, the three decide to go into the future, though at first they have considerable difficulty choosing between 1997 and 2017. Eventually, they decide on 2017, not because they dislike big eyeglass frames and wide lapels, but because 2017 is the date that Genisys is scheduled to launch. In what sounds like a parody, maybe intentional, of the way every intrusive, privacy-annihilating technology is heralded, the movie has several people gushing about how, with Genisys, all their devices can be linked!

Playing a robot, Arnold doesn’t engage much in small talk, and while this has been the pattern for all “Terminator” movies, “Terminator: Genisys” is still at its best when Arnold is around, even when he’s only staring down people or looking at them quizzically.

Those moments without Schwarzenegger are perhaps most noticeable because Clarke and Courtney, for all their winsomeness, are not quite enough to carry a whole movie alone. They’re good, but not quite good in that way, especially in a movie where they have to contend with jumbled, hard-to-convey science.

In the end, the problem with the film’s convolutions isn’t that they make an audience feel confused. They make an audience feel helpless. The movie’s notion that time is never a fixed entity is all well and good as an intellectual conceit, but it lends the proceedings a sense of futility. The characters struggle, risk their lives and blow up yet more stretches of San Francisco just to bring about a certain set of conditions. Meanwhile, it can all be undone by one robot who might arrive next week.

There are too many shootouts involving robots that can’t be injured. Once we figure out that they can’t really do each other damage, why keep showing them fighting? It’s dull. Still, for all its weaknesses, “Terminator: Genisys” is a “Terminator” movie that feels like a “Terminator” movie, more than did “Terminator 3.” It’s not a throwaway. It just doesn’t rise to the proper heights.